Riku Helenius allowed 3 goals on 26 shots for the victory, in a successful return to North American hockey. This battle between Helenius and Dustin Tokarski for the top spot between the pipes in Syracuse is going to rage all season, and both guys are going to be better for it. It's an embarrassment of riches to boast two guys who won championships last season in the AHL and Finnish SM-liiga, respectively. Good. Problem. To. Have.

Cory Conacher (pictured) and Tyler Johnson were the game's first and second stars. For my money, Conacher was the best player in the league the first half of last season and Johnson the best in the second half. Why wouldn't they lead the Crunch in the home opener this year? With a little offseason rest, Conacher looks every bit the pesky scorer that tore up the league to start last year.

No offense to our friends in Hershey, but I have to confess to being a little stunned that this year's version of the Bears is the least stacked, on paper, I've seen in a while. Sure, there's some fine players like Orlov and Holtby, but without the likes of Bourque or Giroux, this year's team lacks the fear factor of many recent editions. It's going to be interesting to see how the division plays out over the course of the season.

Dustin Tokarski allowed 5 goals on 24 shots and 1 of 5 shooters to convert for the shootout loss. That's an ugly stat line for a young man trying to stave off a Riku Helenius challenge for the starting job.

I'm stunned that Syracuse threw out a shootout lineup of Palat, Connolly, Panik, Johnson, and Conacher and got nothing. That's five stud prospects with a lot of skill and... nada. I wouldn't have bet on that.

Syracuse outshot Rochester 34-25 in the game, and was very game to come out of a three goal hole to get a point out of the night. When Johnson pulled Syracuse ahead for the first time in the Third Period, you even had to think for a moment that maybe that killer instinct from Norfolk last season was still in effect. There was plenty of good, plenty of bad, and plenty of coachable moments for Jon Cooper to work on the team with after this one.

On to Syracuse tomorrow and the home opener against perennial power Hershey.

Jaroslav Janus picked up his second shootout victory of the season, stopping 2 of 2 shooters in the penalty shot session for the victory. Remember, on Bolt Prospects, we count shootout wins as wins, because they should be. Among those 2 Yugra shooters denied? Ex-Lightning prospect Anton But. Ex-NHLer Miroslav Satan had the shootout winner for Slava. They face Magnitogorsk next on Saturday.

As a side note: Andrei Vasilevski, Dustin Tokarski, Riku Helenius, Jaroslav Janus. It's the Lightning's deepest and best position prospect-wise by a fairly wide margin. That's saying something given how loaded the team is with right wingers, too.

The Syracuse Crunch will open training camp on September 28 with more talent than they originally expected. The NHL lockout forced the postponement of the Lightning’s training camp and subsequently meant all prospects and young NHLers expected to start the year in Tampa will now start the year in the AHL.

Lost in this situation is the opportunity to have out-of-nowhere stories like Cory Conacher or Brett Connolly last year or perhaps most famously, Dmitri Afanasenkov in 2003.

While that’s bad news for the Tampa Bay media and fans, it’s good news for the Syracuse fanbase, who at this point is like a kid with a birthday the day after Christmas. Not only does a championship team show up at their arena’s front door, now they get a significant upgrade in talent to that team - a team that was already expected to compete for a championship.

This is also good news for the Florida Everblades – another team coming off a championship – as they’ll get the players pushed down from Syracuse.

The question is who?

Here’s a look at the latest minor pro organizational roster of the Tampa Bay Lightning and some notes and predictions for each player, broken down by position.

The Tampa Bay Lightning assigned 18 players to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL ahead of what appears to be an NHL lockout, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced.

Among the players moving to New York are reigning AHL Most Valuable Player Cory Conacher, former No.6 overall pick Brett Connolly, and last year's late-season signing, J.T. Brown. Others include recently signed prospects Vladislav Namestnikov, Danick Gauthier, Dmitry Korobov, and Riku Helenius. The additions of Connolly, Brown, Namestnikov, and Korobov will make the Crunch a stronger team, which is scary considering they were already among the favorites to claim the Calder Cup.

Bolt Prospects' draft coverage begins with the goaltending position, which has been a perennial sore spot since the founding of the franchise. With the exception of short runs by Darren Puppa in the early days of the team and Nikolai Khabibulin leading up to the team's Stanley Cup run in 2003-2004, the Lightning have always seemed to face uncertainty between the pipes.

With the Lightning prospect season finally completed, it is now time to turn our attention to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. While the team's prospect system enjoyed unprecedented success, the team's struggles at the NHL level last season left the Lightning with a draft pick bonanza after a bevy of pre-deadline deals. Heading into the draft, the Lightning currently holds a pair of first round picks, and at least one second round pick following the trade of picks 37 and 50 to Nashville in the Anders Lindback trade.

(Tampa Bay Lightning press release) The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed goaltender Riku Helenius to a two-year contract, Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman announced today. The first year of Heleniusâ€™ contract will be a two-way deal, while the second will be a one-way.

Helenius, 24, played in 33 games for JYP of Finlandâ€™s SM-liiga, compiling a 1.64 goals against average and .936 save percentage. The 6-foot-3, 211-pound goaltender appeared in 13 playoff games this past season, posting a 1.73 goals against average and a .947 save percentage, helping lead JYP to the league championship. The Palkane, Finland native was also given the Urpo Ylonen Award as the top goaltender during the regular season.

The Finnish netminder was originally selected by Tampa Bay in the first round, 15th overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Helenius made his NHL debut with the Lightning on January 30, 2009 against the Philadelphia Flyers in a relief effort and stopped both shots he faced.

Renaud Lavoie of RDS reports that the Lightning have signed goaltender Riku Helenius to a new two-year deal. The first year of the deal will reportedly be a two-way deal worth $550,000 on its upside while the second year will be a one-way deal worth $650,000. Helenius won a SM-liiga championship this season with JYP and earned the Urpo Ylonen Award as the league's top goaltender. Helenius was the Lightning's first round pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.